New businesses launch in Escondido

Retail shops, eateries among downtown-area offerings

ESCONDIDO  More than a half-dozen entrepreneurs in and around downtown Escondido are helping to put a dent in the city’s commercial vacancies.

New businesses and restaurants featuring a range of specialties from baby clothing to barbecue to tea have opened in recent weeks or are poised to open before summer’s end.

Many of the owners said that launching a new business is a scary prospect, but they are confident about their endeavors.

“I’m just a firm believer that we’re never going to get out of this (economic) mess unless somebody takes a risk so I decided to be the one to take the risk,” said Karen Delgadillo, owner of baby boutique The Knitten Kitten.

“I’m a farmer trying to create customers for my fruit,” Bonsall avocado rancher Alex MacLachlan said of his new restaurant, which is expected to open the first week of August.

MacLachlan, a San Pasqual High School graduate who was raised in Old Escondido surrounded by avocado trees, said he used to ride his skateboard on Grand Avenue past the avocado-green building with an expansive back patio that houses his restaurant. “It doesn’t get much more local than me.”

MacLachlan and his wife created the menu, in which avocado is a prominent ingredient in every dish, including dessert.

Debra and Brad Davies have run American Custom Lifts since 1998, mostly out of their Lake Wohlford area home. When they decided to set up a traditional office space and demonstration shop for their automotive lift business, they thought the home of the weekly Cruisin’ Grand classic car show would be the perfect fit.

The owners of a custom automotive lift company are opening a retail store in downtown Escondido that will sell replica-vintage car memorabilia.

The owners of a custom automotive lift company are opening a retail store in downtown Escondido that will sell replica-vintage car memorabilia.

Downtown business requirements call for a retail element to Grand Avenue businesses, so the Davieses are opening a store that will sell replica-vintage 1950s and 1960s garage-type items. Around Aug. 5, the target opening date for Grand Garage Gear, automobile aficionados will be able to browse for accessories such as a barbecue grill shaped like a car engine or a freezer designed as an old-fashioned Coca-Cola chest. Vintage clocks with automotive-related logos, old-fashioned pedal cars and tin automobile signs will be among the inventory.

The store will have a demonstration area for the custom car lifts, which are used by Mini Cooper, Mercedes, Ferrari and the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, Debra Davies said.

The Grand Tea Room, 145 W. Grand Ave.; thegrandtearoom.com.

When Louisa Magoon was laid off after 21 years in human resources, she found the prospect of looking for a new job daunting. So she turned her love of tea into her next career. Magoon took her husband, Bob, out of retirement to help launch The Grand Tea Room, which is expected to open the third week of August.

The Magoons, who live in Escondido, have been working on the tea room and gift shop since March, painting, remodeling, upgrading the kitchen and decorating with chandeliers and a mural.